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Samuel Woodford
Rev. Samuel Woodford (15 April 1636 - 11 January 1700) was an English poet and cleric.Norgate, 395. Life Woodford was born in the parish of All Hallows in the Wall, London, the eldest son of Robert Woodford of Northampton. After leaving St. Paul's School he matriculated on 20 July 1654 as a commoner at Wadham College, Oxford, where he earned a B.A. on 6 February 1657 (N.S.). 2 years later he entered as a student at the Inner Temple, where his chamber-fellow was poet Thomas Flatman. He afterwards lived, first at Aldbrook, then at Binstead, near Ryde, "in a married and secular condition." In November 1664 he was elected to the Royal Society. In January 1669 he took holy orders, and in 1673 was presented by Sir Nicholas Stuart to the benefice of Hartley-Mauduit, Hampshire. Through the influence of George Morley, bishop of Winchester, he was appointed canon of Chichester on 27 May 1676, and of Winchester on 8 November 1680. He received the degree of D.D. by diploma from Archbishop Sancroft in 1677. He died at Winchester on 11 Jan. 1700. He married after the Restoration, and had several sons. Writing Woodford began his poetical career by contributing in 1658 to the Naps upon Parnassus of the younger Samuel Austin (1658 fl.). Of his poem "On the Return of Charles II," 1660, Wood had seen no copy. His chief works were The Paraphrase upon the Psalms and The Paraphrase upon the Canticles. The first originally appeared in quarto in 1667, with a dedication to Bishop Morley, and was reissued in octavo in 1678. In a lengthy preface the reader is informed that the Paraphrase was written while Woodford "had the convenience of a private and most delightful retirement" in the company of Mrs. Mary Beale and her husband. He had been forewarned against prolixity "by a very judicious friend, Mr. Thomas Sprat" (afterwards the bishop). The object of the poet, who drew his inspiration from Cowley, was to give as nearly as he could "the true sense and meaning of the psalms, and in as easy and obvious terms as was possible." The result may be pronounced successful from a literary point of view; and the Paraphrase won the praise of Baxter in his preface to Poetical Fragments, 1681. In 1679 appeared his Paraphrase upon the Canticles and some select Hymns of the New and Old Testaments, with other Occasional Compositions in English Rimes. The volume, which is dedicated to Archbishop Sancroft, has prefatory verses by Sir Nicholas Stuart and Thomas Flatman, besides an ode by W. Croune, D.D. Woodford's miscellaneous poems include two odes to Izaak Walton and verses in commendation of Denham's ‘New Version of the Psalms of David.’ An edition of Woodford's complete works published in 1713 is described as "the second edition corrected by the author." A manuscript "Ode to the Memory of John, Lord Wilmot, Earl of Rochester," is among the Rawlinson collections in the Bodleian, to which library Woodford in March 1657 presented a map of Rome (Macray, Annals, p. 427). Parisot, writing a century later, thought his poems had fallen into undeserved oblivion. Publications *''A Paraphrase upon the Psalms of David''. London: R. White, for Octavian Pullein, 1667; London: J.M., for John Martyn / John Baker / Henry Brome, 1678; (2 volumes), London: Samuel Keble, 1713. *''A Paraphrase upon the Canticles; and Some select hymns of the New and Old Testament, with other occasional compositions in English verse''. London: J.D., for John Baker / Henry Brome, 1679. Except where noted, bibliographical information courtesy WorldCat.Search results = au:Samuel Woodford, WorldCat, OCLC Online Computer Library Center Inc. Web, Jan. 15, 2017. See also *List of British poets References * . Wikisource, Web, Jan. 15, 2017. Notes External links ;Poems *Rev. Samuel Woodford (1636-1700) info & 5 poems at English Poetry, 1579-1830 ;About * Woodford, Samuel Category:1636 births Category:1700 deaths Category:17th-century poets Category:English clergy Category:English-language poets Category:English poets Category:Poets Category:People from Northamptonshire